Some people believe the eyes are windows into the soul. Perhaps that’s why eye contact during partnered sex can feel intense, intimate, and vulnerable.
Make no mistake: all five of our senses play a big part in our arousal depending on how we do or do not engage them. And while touch is undoubtedly the most engaged sense in sex and masturbation, sight is a close second.
Let’s get into the science of visual sexual stimulation and what happens when we remove it.
Visual sexual stimulation is not specific to gender or genitals
Before we discuss this study, let’s get one thing straight: many sexual studies rely heavily on binary gender and do not include non-binary, gender fluid, or gender queer folks. So when we quote or refer to any study and say “sex” or “men” or “women,” what we mean is natal sex, assigned male at birth (AMAB), and assigned female at birth (AFAB) respectively.
Socially speaking, it’s widely accepted that “men are visual creatures.” We hear this in relation to all types of situations, such as porn consumption, following creators on social media, and checking out attractive strangers during their day to day. Alternatively, people AFAB are generally pigeonholed into being “emotional creatures.” Their sense of sight as it relates to sex and arousal is downplayed, if not entirely erased.
One study conducted in The Journal of Sexual Medicine in 2013 supports these assumptions in part. In order to “explore gender commonalities and differences in neural activity associated with the processing of visual sexual stimuli” the study showed 100 participants (50 AMAB, 50 AFAB) “sexual, neutral, positive, and negative emotional pictures during a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) session”.
What they found was that regardless of sex assigned at birth, there was a clear “distributed network for the neural processing of sexual stimuli”. They concluded, “Apart from the observed gender commonalities, overall stronger responses in men were observed that might indicate stronger sexual responsivity in men.”
At the end of the day, however, this could be a classic case of nature versus nurture. Are people AMAB really more visually stimulated, or have people AFAB just been given less permission to explore that element of their arousal?
Women watch porn too.
One of the most widely used types of visual sexual stimulation is porn. It’s readily accessible on the internet (I mean, duh. Rule 34, right?) and there really is a pot for every lid if you know where to look.
That said, mainstream porn remains heavily centered on cishet male pleasure, which makes finding porn for women intimidating, overwhelming, and often confusing. After all, if the majority of porn available is through the lens of a specific type of pleasure and you’re not enjoying it, it’s easy to wonder if something is wrong with you. (Spoiler alert: there's not.)
Fortunately, Rule 34 really does reign supreme which means porn for women is out there — and it’s good! (Here’s looking at you, Afterglow.)
What happens when you take away sight during sex and masturbation?
On the flipside of using visual aids to enhance sexual pleasure lies removing vision entirely for the same purpose. Typically associated with BDSM and power dynamics in the bedroom, blindfolds are incredibly common tools for exploring kink, intimacy, and arousal.
The most widely accepted assumption here is that by inhibiting one sense (sight) the others (especially touch) are heightened. And there are studies that argue this is both true and false with the brain’s neuroplasticity being the main advocate for its ability to adapt and improve other senses in the wake of losing one. But the brain is not designed to instantaneously adapt, so wearing a blindfold during sex and masturbation won’t make any noticeable or lasting changes.
Instead, the novelty and excitement of removing your vision during arousal can heighten your pleasure simply because it is exciting! If you’re masturbating with a blindfold on, it can open the door to increased visualization and fantasy. And if you’re having partnered sex with a blindfold on, the uncertainty of where your partner(s) is coupled with the inability to see what’s going on can really make touch and sound feel so much more pleasurable.
Does removing sight improve orgasm?
If you’ve been with us for some time now, then you already know what I’m going to say.MAYBE.And there’s only one way to find out.
Removing sight during sex and masturbation has all the makings of what we know can improve orgasms: novelty, trust, fantasy, etc. If you’re comfortable when you’re blindfolded, then chances are you’re going to like the orgasms that follow.
Still, trying it for yourself is the only way to know for sure. So grab your Lioness Smart Vibrator and opt into October’s Sexperiment where we’ll find out if taking away your vision is a trick or treat for your orgasms.
